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Castro Village Getting New Look |
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Tuesday, 24 January 2012 17:01 |
Landscaping and other work is continuing at Castro Village.
Over a million dollars has been invested in upgrades to the Castro Village Shopping center so far with another $3 million of additional improvements to be added within the next two years.
“What this is all about is an effort to keep the shoppers here in the valley,” explained Randy Nahas, the son of Robert Nahas, who developed and opened the shopping center in 1949 with the help of businessman Arnold Anderson.
The facelift project, which extends from Eden Bicycles to Ross, includes new facades, sidewalks, planters and parking enhancements. The entryways on Castro Valley Boulevard have also been refined and updated.
Walgreens improvements included installation of a drive-through for the pharmacy, facade refurbishing and additional landscaping
Next up for the center will be a replacement of the iconic blue “Village” sign near Starbucks and the removal of three homes on Jamison that could make way for another retail opportunity at the rear of the shopping center.
Nahas predicted the car wash and former gas station area would make way for a new business and he expects a freestanding restaurant or bank to perhaps occupy the area.
Meanwhile, sales are looking up among merchants at the Village and Nahas hopes receipts continue to show good numbers. “People like the improvements and we made a point to not taking too much of the old away...we still have the old flavor here.”
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Palomares Residents Continue Vigil for Sexual Assault Victim |
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Tuesday, 17 January 2012 16:13 |
Palomares resident Karen Collopy and some of her neighbors were out early Saturday morning tying teal ribbons to fences at the park where a sexual assault occurred three months ago.
The shock and concern has not faded among Palomares residents over a sexual assault that occurred three months ago in their neighborhood.
The woman, who was alone, was attacked while walking on the west side of Villareal Drive at about 10 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 10.
“I have been told this is basically a ‘cold case.’ It’s just sad and appalling this happened here,” said Natalie Hung Saturday morning as she and a handful of other Palomares residents tied teal ribbons (teal is the nationally-recognized ribbon color for sexual assault victims) to the park fence where the attack took place.
Parents, staff and neighbors of Jensen Ranch Elementary School have put together a $2,500 reward fund to go to the person or persons who provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects in the assault.
Sheriff’s detectives, who continue to investigate the case, said the woman had been approached from the rear by two Spanish-speaking men who dragged her near a park restroom and assaulted her.
Since the attack, parks’ district crews have improved lighting in the park area.
Anyone interesting in donating to the reward fund can email . Persons with information on the assault are urged to call the Sheriff’s Youth and Family Services Unit at 510-667-3645 or the sheriff’s anonymous tip line at 510-667-3622.
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CV Man Gets a Charge Out of Collection of Electric Vehicles |
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Thursday, 12 January 2012 10:16 |
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 Castro Valley resident Jeff Stone with some of his 14 electric powered vehicles that get him around town and to his job.
Anyone who’s driven a bit in Castro Valley has most likely seen Jeff Stone riding across town on one of his 14 electrical vehicles.
Stone’s garage is bursting at the seams with two- and three-wheeled mopeds, scooters, battery-powered bicycles and his treasured Segway that most folks have seen him riding.
“I have never been able to drive a car because of my eyesight,” explained Stone, whose lifelong vision impairment prohibits him from driving an automobile. But his ensemble of electric vehicles – which get him back and forth to work and across town – suits him fine. He estimates he racks up about 12,000 miles a year on his electric menagerie.
An outdoorsman, Stone says he gets a lot of satisfaction from one of his hobbies while on the road – collecting litter and rubbish from the town’s roads and sidewalks. He said he also removes outdated garage sale signs from utility poles. “I make a point of picking up at least one piece of trash a day,” he added.
Stone has lived in Castro Valley for 61 years and remembers the days when much of the town was open fields and wide open spaces, and youngsters played in creeks. These days, many of those bygone play areas have been taken over by homes and roadways.
Stone teaches algebra at Moreau Catholic School in Hayward and spends much of his spare time traveling across the East Bay on his vehicles that range in value of $1,500 to $4,000. “People say I am well known because folks see me all over across town,” he added. |
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Banged-Up Mail Boxes to Get Some TLC from USPS |
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Tuesday, 03 January 2012 19:21 |
Mail boxes outside the Castro Valley Post Office have been collecting some ouch-ies as well as letters.
Looking like peculiar dinosaurs with misshapen maws, the three “snorkel” mail boxes outside the Castro Valley Post Office have seen better days.
An anonymous email, bemoaning the poor condition of the boxes, was recently sent to The Forum.
U.S. Postal Service spokesman Gus Ruiz says post office maintenance workers will be out within the next few weeks to repair the boxes that have been in a state of disrepair for years.
“They are regularly replaced when the Postmaster is notified that they either have low density with less than 25 pieces per box per day or are in need of repair,” says Ruiz, who estimates the three blue boxes handle a hefty volume of about 4,300 pieces of mail per day.
Each steel mail box costs about $680 new. The ones in Castro Valley look as if they have been crunched repeatedly by car doors and possibly vandalized by pry bars. Ruiz says the Postal Service has no regular maintenance schedule, but only repairs or replaces them as requested.
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Fireplace Embers Set Roof Ablaze |
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Tuesday, 27 December 2011 17:33 |
Alameda County firefighters on Friday quickly brought a rooftop fire under control at a home on Langdon Court near Lake Chabot Road. The smoky fire was ignited by embers from the fireplace around noon.
Alameda County firefighters quickly extinguished a smoky fire that broke out on the roof of a home in the 19700 block of Langon Court around noon on Friday.
A family of four fled the house after neighbors alerted them. Alameda County Fire Battalion Chief T.J. Welch said burning embers from a just-lit fire in the fireplace apparently touched off the blaze.
Four fire engines, a truck, a heavy rescue vehicle and about two dozen firefighters put the fire out in less than 20 minutes.
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Landmark Daughtrey Building May Be Headed for the Wrecking Ball |
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Tuesday, 20 December 2011 16:16 |
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Alameda County Redevelopment Agency officials are considering tearing down the former Daughtrey department store that has sat vacant in the center of town for the past two decades.
Alameda County Redevelopment Agency officials are considering tearing down the former Daughtrey department store that has sat vacant in the center of town for the past two decades.
Two offers have been submitted to the agency by companies, each working with a nationally known retail outlet, interested in occupying the building, according to redevelopment officials. Both want the old building demolished to provide space for a new structure.
The Redevelopment Agency purchased the building for about $3.14 million dollars in April 2010. One of the potential developers has tentatively offered to pay 10 percent of the demolition and renovation costs, which could be as much as $2 million.
“This asset has a lot of value to the public sector and if we get this anchor tenant it will be a very high sale business,” said County Economic Director Bill Lambert during last Wednesdays meeting of the Castro Valley Community Advisory Committee.
The demolition and reconstruction scenario appealed to newly appointed committee member David Silva, who said the building “is at the heart of our downtown and has been an eyesore for too long.”
“We are taking a big financial hit on this deal,” said committee member Marc Crawford. “I was an advocate of tearing it down from the beginning. We need to deal with the blight and being able to design a new building is exciting. It really is a no-brainer to tear it down and start with something new.”
Lambert said he has invested six months working with both interested parties and the county in considering what he describes as the “best deal possible.” If demolished, a new 15,000 square foot building would be created and the “anchor” business would occupy one of three separate retail portions.
The building, once the home to the area’s largest department store, had attracted shoppers to downtown Castro Valley from 1948 until it closed. Except for a few shore term businesses, like a billiards parlor and Halloween costume store, it has been sitting vacant for about 20 years.
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